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Resolutions are easy to make and hard to keep. Any politician will affirm this. This January, Love British Food resolves to change this assertion and has come up with some enticing suggestions for resolutions that are as exciting to make as they are to maintain.
Eat meals at a table and not in front of a television or computer screen. Contemporary living makes this simple task increasingly hard to do, unless you are entertaining. However, as soon as you have established it as a pattern - be it daily or weekly, you will never, ever regret it. Eating at a table without a visual aid has such a profound effect on your general well-being. You will be amazed at how much more aware you are of your portion size and what you are eating. Every ingredient you eat will have far greater significance, from its origin to how it is compiled into the meal. In fact the meal is a great conversation in itself. If you are eating alone, it is no excuse - put on the radio or some background music. Spend time looking at your plateful and savouring each mouthful. There is endless evidence about how taking your time over a meal is better for your metabolism and sitting down at a table is far more conducive to this. You will undoubtedly hit a four-week rut, where you will feel you have no time or have run out of ideas. Stand firm. Over the weekend try and grab a spare five minutes and scrawl down a menu plan for the week - it is really fun to do. If you have more time then have a good look through some recipe books or online before you make your plan. You will be astounded at how quickly a meal of frozen, ready-made fish fingers and oven chips followed by a yoghurt eaten regularly at the table soon becomes breaded sea bass with pan-fried cabbage and home-made chips followed by stewed rhubarb and rice pudding.
It is all in the planning. If you have a whim to cook, then cook and keep cooking so you have a meal for the day and meals for the future by freezing the excess. If you are doing a large supermarket shop then buy more than usual and freeze, especially British vegetables, fish and meat. A full store-cupboard gives endless possibilities for what you can cook and how many calories you want it to contain, so meal-plan before you go shopping and think about the week ahead. If you see or taste a recipe you like, copy it or print it and stick it in a scrap book. If you are looking for a weekend activity then research local farmers' markets, butchers, fishmongers, bakers and delicatessens. These are value-for-money treasure troves that will never let you down. Many farm shops also have playgrounds and cafes for a family day out. If you want to save money then never buy food in haste.
Entertain. Inviting friends and family over for a meal is such a great way of raising your self-esteem. It doesn't have to be complicated. For January you could cook parsnip soup with homemade stilton scones or a pork chop with mashed swede. Alternatively, how about a bowl of British mussels followed by some roast goose with cabbage. Seasonal forced rhubarb gives an abundance of simple pudding ideas from fools to crumbles. Start or revive a tradition of a weekly family/friends meal, perhaps a Sunday roast, and take it in turns to host. Regularly seeing people who care about you whilst eating home-cooked British food is the best remedy for the soul. Inviting people to eat food with you is also an added incentive to sit around a table for a meal. Email someone now and invite them over for supper.
Use British ingredients to cook traditional British dishes. You have to be honest, British food has personality. The traditional fruit cake stood fast this Christmas as its Italian cousin, the Panettone, bagged the spotlight. Whilst adoring fans fawned over the suave, light texture of the Panettone, the British Christmas cake, with more nobility than Downton Abbey, looked on. Its hearty soul and robust physique stood firm. It has survived the Stollen, the Panaforte and the Birnenbrot, and it was not going to be usurped by the flash cake from Milan. Imagine its amusement as thousands of households resorted to converting leftover Panettone into the most traditional of English desserts, bread-and-butter pudding. Afterall, there is no need to panic about what to do with a Christmas cake. If anything it tastes better with age. Have some fun with British food and try to re-create your favourite dishes from your childhood. Try making Welsh Rarebit rather than pizza, for example.
Form a Cookery Club. Book clubs are so 2010. Bring a group of friends together every month and take in turns to host a British meal. The group can discuss recipe ideas and what is in season before deciding the menu for the following month. If there are more members then months, then individuals can bring different courses. With so many digital devices it has never been easier to organise a club. With the allure of food to attract members, you should rarely have no-shows.
Cook together. A kitchen should belong to everyone in the household, not one dominant chef. The more flatmates and family are included in the cooking and meal preparation, the more all of the above resolutions will be easier to sustain. So if you are the kitchen-hog then learn to share and if you are the non-culinary participant then involve yourself in meal preparation - even if it is just in sourcing the ingredients, choosing a recipe or laying the table.
Visit the Love British Food website at least once a week. Of course we are biased, but the Love British Food website is such an extensive resource. It is the connecting link in the British food world - jam-packed with information for everyone from consumers and caterers to students and teachers. There is something for every individual - resource packs, recipe ideas, British food event listings, top tips and seasonal suggestions. The Love British Food website will help you plan meals, will tell you what you need to look for in packaging and will inspire you. It is the one website that will galvanise you into reviewing your eating habits to ensure you are consuming delicious food that is fresh, tasty, healthy, value-for-money and British.
This month The Sauce cooks a simple, seasonal supper - Mussels and Cider.
 The Sauce
- What ingredients did you use and how readily available were they?
Glug of olive oil - had in store cupboard
Medium-sized onion - I used two, which I already had.
Bay leaf - had in store cupboard
½ teaspoon whole black peppercorns, which I crushed with a pestle and mortar.
2 cloves of garlic - had in store cupboard
1 x 500g/1lb 2oz bag mussels - I bought 1kg as I intended to double the recipe. They were fresh Scottish mussels bought online from Waitrose and cost £3.49
250ml/9fl oz medium or dry cider - I used Orchard Pig Cider and again doubled the specified quantity. It cost £3.00
- What was the sum total cost of the ingredients
£6.49
- How many people did it actually feed?
4
- How easy was it to make.
I cannot emphasise enough how easy it was to make and such fun.
- Did you have any assistance?
It was one of those meals I cooked whilst chatting to my friends in the kitchen. It is that easy and they were all fascinated to see how to cook mussels too.
- Would you cook it again?
Yes
- Were there any leftovers?
No
- What did you serve it with?
Scottish oatcakes but they were hardly eaten - mussels are surprisingly filling. Yum.
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